Pre Thanksgiving Cooking

Thanksgiving is going to be here in a few days and I can't believe that. Coping by making a turkey and pumpkin swirl brownies today...

I'm roasting the turkey similarly to this recipe. Trying to keep it pretty basic.

Turkey

1 turkey
1 stick butter
3 potatos sliced in long slabs
2 onions
1 apple
Seasonings: dash of lemon pepper, a lot of oregano, salt, pepper
 
I used a stick of butter to rub the turkey down and put chunks of butter inside the skin. Put the turkey on a bed of potatoes so they aren't directly on the bottom of the pan. Add big slices of onions in and around the turkey. Also added apple slices inside beside I read that helps keep it moist. Seasoned the turkey with lemon pepper, oregano, salt and pepper.

 Roast at 350 covered. Uncover for the last 45 minutes.  Baste every hour.


Gravy

1 stick butter
1/2 cup flour
4 cups drippings/broth
black pepper and oregano


Drain the pan drippings for the roasted turkey through a fine strainer. Let sit and then remove any fat from the top of the drippings. Add in chicken broth or water to make 4 cups if necessary

In a medium saucepan, melt margarine or butter. Add in lots of black pepper and a dash of oregano.

Add in 1/2 cup flour plus 3 tablespoons; constantly whisk for about 3 minutes over low heat.

Slowly add in the 4 cups turkey broth/drippings; whisk constantly over medium-low heat until bubbly and thickened (about 3 minutes). Use right away or keep warm over lowest heat setting, whisk again before serving.

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
adapted from Martha.
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
6 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped, or 1 cup chocolate chips
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
3 Tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350F and spray a 9″x9″ cake pan with nonstick spray.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the chocolate and remove from heat. Let sit for a few minutes, then stir until smooth.

In a large bowl beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla for 3-4 minutes, until thick and pale yellow. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and beat just until combined.

Put about a third of the batter into another bowl and stir the pumpkin, oil, cinnamon and nutmeg into it. Stir the chocolate mixture into the remaining batter and spread a little more than half of it into the prepared pan. Top with the pumpkin mixture, then drop large spoonfuls of the remaining chocolate mixture on top. Swirl a knife through both to create a swirled effect.

Bake for 40 minutes, until just set and starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Makes 16 brownies.

Stuffed Shells

Tonight I made stuffed shells for the first time. They took about an hour but were well worth it. It's the perfect thing to make on the weekend because the recipe makes a ton of stuffing which can easily be frozen. I only prepared 16 shells and ended up having almost half a recipe of filling left... which is in the freezer now!

I used Emril's recipe below, but made some tweaks. Nothing crazy except for the sauce...

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 (12-ounce) box jumbo pasta shells (18 to 20 shells)
• 2 cups finely chopped onion
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 pound ground beef or sausage
• 1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 15 ounces ricotta cheese
• 2 large eggs
• .5 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1.5 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Red Sauce (alysse's change: saute garlic, onion, purred carrots and tomatoes for 10 minutes, then add half a bottle of sauce and warm in the pan until ready to pour over shells)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 2-quart casserole dish with 1 teaspoon of olive oil.
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon of the salt and the pasta shells, and cook until al dente (dont over cook!!!), 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally with a long-handled spoon to prevent the shells from sticking together. Drain and rinse under cold running water. Drain.

In a medium skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring, until very soft, 6 to 7 minutes. Add the ground veal and cook, stirring, until cooked and browned. Add the squeezed spinach and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.

Remove the spinach and beef mixture from pan. In the same pan, saute olive oil. Then add 3 cloves garlic and a minced onion. Purree 5 large carrots in a food proccessor and add to the pan. Add one can of tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add half a jar of tomato sauce and heat until ready. 

In a large bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, eggs, Parmesan cheese, and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Add the spinach mixture, the extra-virgin olive oil, remaining teaspoon of salt, the basil, oregano, and pepper, and stir to combine thoroughly. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the spinach-ricotta filling into each cooked pasta shell. Place the filled shells in the prepared dish.

Pour Sauce over the filled shells and top with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Bake, uncovered, until bubbly, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Whipped Frosting

Growing up, my aunt's chocolate frosting was the best part of my birthday. This frosting was a thick, solid and creamy deliciousness that sometimes would need to be slabbed onto the cake.

But when I was having a frosting craving last week, I decided to make something different. I didn't have anything specific in mind, so decided on a whipped style frosting. It was totally different than my family recipe (and truthfully, I like my families better for cakes). But if I were ever to make a red velvet cake or need a really creamy, light, almost cool whip like texture, this will be the way to go.

Thanks to Tasty Kitchen for the recipe. 


Whipped Cream Vanilla Frosting

5 TBS flour
1 Cup milk
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup butter


Heat your milk and flour on the medium heat, whisking constantly for a few minutes until it becomes very thick. Keep whisking! It will completely change texture after a few minutes.

Cool the mixture completely. Completely!
 
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the cooled flour/milk mixture.

Pour one cup of sugar into a bowl with one cup of butter. Use a mixer to whip it around until it’s light and fluffy. Add the cooled flour/milk/vanilla mixture.

Mix it on medium-high until the mixture resembled whipped cream.

Done! Easy, delicious and no need for any type of cake to put it on. Eat from bowl. 
  
 

Spinach Chicken Heaven

I just ate the most delicious meal!! Went directly here so that I could document it, because, hot damn! That spinach, that chicken... and it's healthy.

You start by making the spinach, which serves as a base to the chicken when plating. Then cook the chicken in the same pan while baking the spinach. Easy, about 20 minutes to make.

The important thing about this recipe is to keep the pan relatively dry throughout. Add stock VERY SLOWLY, only a tablespoonish at a time. The pan should appear to be pretty dry thoughout, but don't be afraid to add more stock in. Just do it slowly and in small amounts!!

Serves 6
1 pounds spinach (the more the better - I'm always disappointed when my HUGE pile wilts down to nothing)
broccoli
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
1 ablespoons flour
  1/3cup stock
1/4 cup grated Swiss cheese (or a like cheese)
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large pan, heat a few tablespoons of water and spinach for 4ish minutes until it wilts. Then transfer to a bowl of cold water to halt the cooking. Wring out the spinach to get rid of as much water as possible (watch it disappear before your eyes! sad times)

In the same pan, melt the butter. Add the spinach back in, heat for 2 minutes. Add broccoli if you'd like. Add in the flour and stir, heat for another few minutes. Keep stirring throughout the keep the spinach from sticking to the pan. SLOWLY add the stock. SLOWLY. Keep the pan pretty dry! Heat for 3-4 minutes.

Remove the pan from heat. Pam an appropriate sized pan. Mix in half of the cheese into the spinach, pour into pan. Mix remaining cheese and breadcrumbs (...pour in at the same time...) to the stop of the spinach.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, until bubbly.

Then cook chicken in the same pan, adding general chicken seasonings. Add olive oil at the beginning, then SLOWLY add stock, but don't drown the chicken. Only add small amounts. Scrap up seasonings/scraps at the bottom of the pan.

BAM! So good! How is this so good?? I literally ate bites and exclaimed "OH MY GOSH." If I didn't cook up all my spinach tonight, I'd make it again tomorrow.

Chickpeas with Broccoli

After a week of eating pizza almost everyday, I've been in need of meal that was made of real, healthy ingredients. This was easy, pretty quick, delicious and most importantly filling!
 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced 
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 heads broccoli, including stalks, trimmed and chopped (2 cups) 
• 1 (10.5 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/3 cup chicken or vegetable broth 
• 1/3 cup Parmesan shavings 

In a large skillet (preferably one with a lid), warm olive oil over medium heat until hot. Carefully add onion, garlic and salt, and sauté, stirring often, until onion becomes transparent and garlic just begins to turn golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes.

Toss in broccoli; sauté for 3 minutes. Add chickpeas, broth. Stir once, cover and cook for 3 minutes more, just to heat through and finish cooking broccoli.

Uncover, season with pepper, sprinkle with Parmesan and serve. Add chopped smoked salmon if you have it. Nom!

Cajun Fish

Will and I have been buying a lot of fish lately. Whenever tilapia goes on sale for $4.00 we get 2-3 pounds and freeze it. This tomato based fish dish is really flavorful, healthy and super easy.

Ingredients:
- 2 filets of fish (we use tilapia mostly)
- can of tomatoes or two fresh tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- other random veggies! peas, broccoli, peppers, throw them in there
- 1/2 cup of water or broth
- 1-2 tbsp cajun seasoning
- 1/2 tbsp italian seasonings

- rice

To start, get some rice going as your base. I use a rice cooker, which makes it super easy.

Then in a large skillet, heat up some oil, add onions and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and any other veggies (not the tomatoes yet!), saute for a few minutes. Then add tomatoes and your water. Place the fish on top of the veggies. Add cajun and italian seasonings. Then place a cover on the skillet and cook for 6 minutes minutes.

Voila! Done. Add any more seasonings to taste. Pour the veggies and fish over your rice and wam, bam - delicious and healthy meal.

Hot Spinach Dip

I made two versions because I thought one wouldn't be enough. I was wrong. But not because they weren't delicious! Will and I were just full after the first one but we powered through.

Healthier Spinach Dip
**This feeds only 2-3. 

- 4 cloves garlic
- Bag of spinach
- 1/2 to 2/3 package low fat cream cheese
- 2 tpsb lemon juice
- 1 tpsb salt
- 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
- sprinkle of shredded cheese on top

Preheat oven to 350. Saute garlic (do not brown), add garlic. Just before it is wilted, add cream cheese to desired consistency and melt and mix together. Then off heat, add lemon juice and salt. Fold in parmesan cheese.

Put in small baking dish (baked brie dish or baked apple dish), bake at 350 for 10 minutes, then broil for 2 minutes.


For less healthy, add 1/3 cup cream cheese and 1/4 cup mayo. Add more cheese. MORE CHEESE! Mozzarella will do nicely.

"Clean out the fridge" Veggie Lasagna

This past weekend I tried a 7 day cleanse, the wonderfully name GOOP Cleanse, and while I only lasted 4 days (4 long, painful days - including a day I filmed a video about fudge being made. Now THAT was tough.), I ended up with a fridge full of vegetables that needed to be consumed. For some reason, the idea for an eggplant lasagna popped into my head and I was off.

When making this, I definitely fell into the trap of not looking at all my ingredients before I started cooking. What makes a lasagna? Red sauce/Tomatoes, right? So assuming I had a few jars, I went right ahead slicing all the veggies and laying them out in the baking pan. It wasn't until I went searching for the red sauce that I realized we were out. Out of white sauce too! This was after all my ingredients were in the pan... what to do...

Why not turn this red sauce lasagna into a white sauce lasagna? I added a can of Cream of Potato Soup and whipped up a butter and milk mixture that I poured over top the veggies. I wasn't sure how it would taste, but it was fantastic! If you have a bunch of random veggies that you need to get rid of, try this recipe either sticking to this white sauce recipe (feel free to add any Cream Of soup, or simply more of the milk/butter mixture) or add a can of tomatoes in place of the soup and add some extra red sauce as well.

You can see from the pictures that Avett helped me cook :) Will was not at home, so the pictures came from my camera. *I promise if I ever cook for people other than Will and myself, Avett will not be allowed on the table or in sniffing range of the food!

"Clean out the Fridge" Veggie Lasagna (makes 4 servings)


- Veggies: Anything you have in your fridge. You'll want a few types:
   - 2-3 Eggplant, zucchini, squash for the noodles
   - Greens - I used a bag of frozen creamed spinach (heated up prior to adding) and fresh kale
   - Garlic
   - Any other veggies you may have
- Handful of noodles (not too many!)
- 1tbsp each basil, oregano, pepper, thyme
- 1tbps of butter
- 1/3 cup of milk
- 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 can Cream of Potato soup


Slice up your veggies, keeping the "veggie noodle" layer in large slices. Put the 1/2 of the largest slices around the bottom of the pan to create a solid layer. Add some seasoning. Layer on top the spinach, garlic, any extra veggies. Sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese on top. Keep layering the veggies to look like a lasagna, saving the second half of the large slices for the top (don't add yet).

Add the second 1/3 of cheese. Add the Cream of Potato soup, spreading it on top to create it's own layer. Add the remaining large slices of veggies to the top (this should use up all your veggies).

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, add milk and beat together. Pour over the veggies. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.

Heat at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, or until the veggies are all tender. ENJOY!

(I forgot to take a picture at the end of baking it... It was too delicious to remember silly things like that!)

Slow Cooked BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

SO EASY. I couldn't believe it.

Slow Cooked BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
(for 2-4 people)

- 2 chicken breasts or chicken legs/wings
- 1 bottle BBQ sauce
- 1 onion
- 4 sandwich buns

Put chicken, onion and 1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce into the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, until chicken is falling off the bone. Pick out all the bones. Add the rest of the sauce (or as much as needed, save a little bit for the buns!) and mix. Add to buns, enjoy!

Goes great with those sweet potato fries!

Slow Cooker Enchilidas

I made this for the first time yesterday and man oh man, those are some good enchiladas. The slow cooker allows the chicken to fall apart, while frozen spinach and black beans provide a filling, healthy dish. This recipe makes 3-4 servings.

Slow Cooker Enchiladas

In the morning/the filling:
- 2/3 can of black beans
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 package frozen spinach
- 1/2 cup salsa or tomatoes
- green peppers/jalapenos/chilies if desired
- 1 onion, cut into smallish slices
- 8-12 radishes, diced
- 1/2 pack taco seasoning (or 1tbsp cumin, 1tsp cayenne/red pepper, black pepper, garlic powder, cilantro)

Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

- 4-6 tortillas
- shredded cheese

After that, preheat the oven to 400. Spray a casserole dish with Pam. Set up 4-6 tortillas in a pan, side by side, so that filling can be easily added. Add 2-3 scoops of the filling into each tortilla. Wrap up each tortilla and place them side by side in the pan. Sprinkle with cheese, salsa, extra filling. Bake for 25 minutes.

Jambalaya

It's been awhile, eh? Here we go! This Jambalaya is very easy to make and makes a lot, which is good because the left overs are good for days. The flavors blend and make it a welcomed lunch. This is a good recipe to get in a lot of veggies without noticing, and except for the sausage is healthy. It's very versatile - use any veggies that are in your fridge and pick and choose your meats. 


Jambalaya

- garlic, onion, peppers - whatever veggies you have, dice them up into small pieces
- combination of chicken, sausage, and shrimp
- rice
- can of tomatoes
- 1/4ish cup water
- 2 bay leaves
- 1tsb oregano, chile powder, garlic powder
- 2 tbsp cajun seasoning (add all spices to taste, the better flavor the better!)


First, start rice in the slow cooker.

Heat some olive oil in a deep soup pot. Add onions, simmer until they begin to become translucent. Add the rest of the veggies except for the can of tomatoes. Saute for 5-10 minutes.

Brown chicken in a separate pan. Cut into chunks, add to the veggies. Add chucked sausage and shrimp to veggies as well.

Add tomatoes, water and seasoning. Simmer for 10ish minutes. Add rice. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Add to water (slowly!) as needed to maintain desired consistency. I tend to like it less watery, but some prefer a broth.